Wal-Mart Warns Workers Of Democratic Win

UPDATE: Wal-Mart has issued a statement regarding The Wall Street Journal article outlining how it's warning employees to beware of voting for Democrats. AP has the details. The Wall Street Journal article is excerpted below this excerpt from AP:

Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's largest retailer, denied a report Friday that it had pressured employees to vote against Democrats in November because of worries that a bill the party supports would make it easier for workers to unionize.

The measure, called the Employee Free Choice Act, would allow labor organizations to unionize workplaces without secret ballot elections. It was co-sponsored by Barack Obama, the presumed Democratic presidential candidate, and opposed by John McCain, the presumed Republican nominee.

The original report from The Wall Street Journal:

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is mobilizing its store managers and department supervisors around the country to warn that if Democrats win power in November, they'll likely change federal law to make it easier for workers to unionize companies -- including Wal-Mart.

In recent weeks, thousands of Wal-Mart store managers and department heads have been summoned to mandatory meetings at which the retailer stresses the downside for workers if stores were to be unionized.

According to about a dozen Wal-Mart employees who attended such meetings in seven states, Wal-Mart executives claim that employees at unionized stores would have to pay hefty union dues while getting nothing in return, and may have to go on strike without compensation. Also, unionization could mean fewer jobs as labor costs rise ...

The Wal-Mart human-resources managers who run the meetings don't specifically tell attendees how to vote in November's election, but make it clear that voting for Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama would be tantamount to inviting unions in, according to Wal-Mart employees who attended gatherings in Maryland, Missouri and other states.

"The meeting leader said, 'I am not telling you how to vote, but if the Democrats win, this bill will pass and you won't have a vote on whether you want a union,'" said a Wal-Mart customer-service supervisor from Missouri. "I am not a stupid person. They were telling me how to vote," she said.

Comments

[wdw101]

walmart EMPs have voted down a union how many times before....­.....accep­t a no

if you don't like minimum wage change it........

insurance is for full time EMPs......­.

I don't believe that there is a safety issue.....­.

unionize why?

[darthmaul]

Here is one reason, for all you "Free Market-No Government" types. It's been found that Walmart employee's make extensive use of government assistance programs and emergency services. So in effect, we are subsidizing Walmart by providing their workers with these services.

" The average Wal-Mart costs taxpayers an estimated $108,000 a year for its workers’ children who are enrolled in state children’s health insurance programs, according to Everyday Low Wages: The Hidden Price We All Pay for Wal-Mart.
California taxpayers pay $86 million annually for such public programs as health care and subsidized housing that low-wage Wal-Mart workers rely on, according to an August 2004 report from the Institute for Labor and Employment at the University of California, Berkeley."

I'm all for Walmart making a profit. I just don't want to do it with my taxes!

[wdw101]

a solution let us cancel all social programs so that walmart can't do that.....p­roblem solved

[PatrickforO]

Gosh, whyever do you think Wal-Mart fears unions? Could it be because it exploits its workers mercilessly? Hey, folks, this is just one more plain-as-day illustration about how we the people have been manipulated into voting against our self interest for decades. Let's win the culture war begun in the 1960's once and for all. Vote O, and vote Dem!

[wdw101]

"Vote O, and vote Dem!" NO I WILL NOT BE DOING THAT

[barbwiregrrl]

Wow for someone who claims to own a large company why aren't you at work? Or are you just slackin in mommy's basement in your boxers? Are your "employees" allowed to play on the internet at work?

Why good golly you are breaking your own rules!

[Geauterre]

If the basis of this article is true, then Wal Mart 'advising' managers to pressure worker bees on how to vote is disgusting. On the other hand, it makes sense as Wal Mart is solidly in the Republican camp of thinking. If Democratic rivals get a chance to oversee what Wal Mart has usually gotten away with, then the rough-shod ways of their dealing with employees would change.

[CitizenInformed]

Good that the WSJ exposed this story. Maybe it will backfire on Wal-Mart, and employees will embrace the idea of unionizing­....not that I am for or against unions....­just noting their plan may backfire. Hope so, because Wal-Mart's employee manipulation tactic is sad.

[wdw101]

but legal

[Lagniappe]

Not necessarily. The law states that salaried employees ,such as managers, can lobby against unions,but NOT hourly employees .

[PublicAdvocate]

Walmart should be called "Slave Mart". Part of Walmart's policies to keep workers weak and impoverished is to pay them an average annual salary of around $15,000 for full time work. Addionally, WalMart coaches its workers how to get public welfare so they can continually underpay their workers and slough off the burden of extreme poverty onto the American taxpayer. The American taxpayer picks up the burden and the executives and corporation pick up the profits.
http://Walmartwatch.com
Fortunately Ralph Nader would crack down on abusive corporate schemes designed to reinvent slavery and continually abuse the taxpayer.
Minimum wage should be $25 per hour (50K per year) so that all legal American workers can earn a living wage, and maximum wage should be capped at $1 million per year ($500 per hour) to ensure economic justice against the evils of naked greed and harding which only impoverishes the working class and disincentivizes creativity and innovation.

[wdw101]

If you limit a person's wage, once that wage is hit why work any harder, why expand a business, why create new jobs.....i­f 50 was the minimum wage everything would go up in cost. poverty would still exist the person in poverty would just be making 50k.

[MeanGreenMachine]

More money would flow into the economy and create more jobs.

Econ 101

[mayhem4masses]

We all know how much Wal-Mart hates unions, and once again, Wal-Mart is trying to give us the heebie jeebies about them. Wal-Mart swears up and down that they are not trying to influence their employees by brain washing them with ideas that if they vote democratic then they will be forced to unionize and millions will loose their jobs followed by famine, pestilence and inevitable death. Once again, Wal-Mart shows us that unions represent the four horsemen of the apocalypse! Now, since I like to give Wal-Mart employees more credit then their dictating corporate suit run employer i.e. Wal-Mart, let me just say I doubt that most Wal-Mart employees will be influenced by Wal-Mart’s unrelenting garbage. These people have a mind of their own and the right to vote for whatever person they deem worthy.
Even if Wal-Mart claims they are not trying to force their employees to vote republican, the fact of the matter is, they are. Wal-Mart seems to think there will be no repercussions for their presumptions. I like to believe, that most Wal-Mart employees will still vote for whomever they want to vote for. Furthermore, if I was a Wal-Wart employee, I would probably vote democratically just despite them. How many people actually do what their boss tells them to do anyway? Why should this be any different?
barakobamasworld.com

[wdw101]

if this boycott talk was referring to the hiring of illegals..­....I would support the boycott...­...however the focus is on the wrong thing.....­....I am now shopping at walmart...­..

[henrydavidthrow]

If Walmart was running for president, it would have a tiny moustache patch right under its nose.

[taitracee]

as of today I am boycotting Walmart and Sams, I have to go buy a Cosco Membership. I hate when Corporations try to bully the small people.

[wdw101]

as of today, i am shopping at sam's when ever it saves me money.....­...i will use gift cards as incentives to pick up production­......

[barbwiregrrl]

wdw101....­:)

Spill in asile 7.....get your mop

[Donnat]

COSTCO RULES!!!!!­!!!!!!!!!!­!!!!!!!!!

[wdw101]

rules what???? their stock blows 62.20.....­..down from a 52 week high of 75.23.....­..wow, real good

[99hockeyman]

And wallyworld is at $58.43 tool

[elmoor]

American workers need a living wage. If that means that you have to pay little more for your CD from Walmart, then buck it up. (cut coupons and you can beat Walmart pricing on food)

[WalmartSucks]

WET CLEANUP NEEDED IN AISLE 7 !!!!

Hey, if I worked for Walmart and they dissuaded me from voting for a certain candidate, I'd definitely vote FOR that candidate. It's pretty black and white to me.

The nerve of Walmart execs. And not real bright either. Where does Walmart think many of the Obama folks are going to shop if they think Walmart is playing hardball against their candidate?After hearing about this, I surely won't set foot in a Walmart store.

Funny, GOPs don't want a Walmart within a 30 mile radius of their homes, yet they'll support the Walmart philosophy. Greed does some sad things to people.

[wdw101]

that's right 40 miles would be better though....­......that client base can stay at walmart...­....their stock is performing well......­.

[wdw101]

why would i waste all that time?

[Maxbyte]

One positive thing about Wal-Mart's aversion to its workers best interests is that the company has begun revamping its old stores [adding liquor of all things] and painting the stores brown rather than the familiar blue. One of the remodeled stores is in Stoughton, WI.

You know - when Wal-Mart goes brown - even its Board of Directors knows its stores are full of sh*t. And so they. Everyone, except the lowliest of its employees.

Wal-Mart isn't afraid of raising its prices; it simply has an aversion to having its own history shoved down its collective mouth... in public.

[NevadaLiberal]

Democrats and fair minded Independents and Republican­s.......yo­u know what to do!! So do it, break yourself from these bonds. Do not shop there. Change your habits, challenge yourself today. Stop supporting this anti American and anti neighbor and anti human treatment from Walmart. Shop at smaller stores, or franchises where the owners might actually be your neighbors and their money stays in your neighborhood. We can do it if we really want to. Vote with your wallet and then go to the polls and elect people who truly care about you and your communities. Stop electing corporate Republican Vampires. They are sucking the liveblood out of the middle class and America in general.

[cmarmonhalm]

Right on!!! I'm telling everyone I know not to shop at Wal-mart anymore. It may not be much but it's the very least we can do.

[dutchess2]

Americans ought not shop at Walmart for the goods from China they sell here, they ought not shop at Walmart for the down and dirty methods they use to get rid of all competition near their stores.

They ought not shop at Walmart because their workers are paid so little one of their training programs is how to apply for food stamps.

They ought not shop at Walmart because they are anti-union, and more than half their customers are union members.

But the biggest reason Americans ought not shop at Walmart is the attempt to interfere in the election for POTUS...wh­en the alternative is more of the same that has brought about a trade deficit with China, the largest debt in the history of the world, with our brand besmirched. Of course Walmart wants more of the same.

Quite simply - stop shopping there.

[LiberalBuzz]

The greed, NAKED GREED, of the surviving Walton families, of which I believe there are five, is beyond all normal reason. Currently worth about 125 BILLION DOLLARS, they just can't wrap their greed infected pointy little heads around the fact they COULD get by on 75 BILLION or 50 BILLION and start paying employees better along with all health benefits then they wouldn't have to worry about unions.

Pay them BETTER than union with equal bennies and you would not have to worry. As it is anyway, Wally's drives me nuts anyway with trying to find help except in the electronics department.

We rarely go there preferring to support local stores, but sometimes finding what you need in a small town like ours simply makes it impossible to go anywhere else. Personally I think Wal Mart is a traitor to the human race and the Waltons should be doing time not redecorating their personal 757's to the tune of millions while whining about paying employees a decent living wage.